Looking for Dinosaurs in Lanark

This weekend was a new experience for us - looking after my eldest neice and nephew (16 and 12 years old)! Long story short, my nephew has recently got into all things geeky (pokemon cards, anime etc) and has decided that hubby and I (who are completely unabashed about how geekey we are with out fortnightly online RPGs and miniatures in addition to the above), are clearly the best grown ups he knows. Not that his parents aren't supportive of his new interests, they just don't help themselves when the call anime "those weird Japanese cartoons" amongst other faux pa's! We'd said that, once covid allowed, we'd take him for a weekend of unashamed geekery and then that evolved to also taking his sister who, being at that age where they want to do all the hobbies, has realised that my house is only short a few balls of wool to become viable to be listed as a craft store... 

Its nice that they've grown back into us being the cool aunt and uncle again! 

So, we had them dropped off on Friday and the games, literally, commenced as we played Mario Party for the evening. 

Saturday was the main day. We decided to check out Jurassic Lanark - a Dino themed treasure hunt where each display gave a letter which formed a word for which you got a badge upon completion. 

We started at the Tolbooth in Lanark town centre and then, after finding all 3 displays, moved onto New Lanark for the final 4. 

We had deliberately chosen that order as we knew there was an open air market at New Lanark that the neice would love it if the dinos were beneath her (she stated that she enjoyed getting photos of them, when I checked how she was finding it). Talking cameras, nephew got to play with mine for the day, which really got him to engage with everything. He took being Missys personally pupperazzi very seriously! 

The market was a success too. Both managed to spend all their pocket money and, I think they were pleasantly surprised that we didn't stop them buying anything, but insisted they looked at everything first, we'd come back for what the wanted. Missy wasn't left out, she got some doggy black pudding for later in the week and the lovely lady selling dried meats shared some sausage with her! 

The evening was spent building pokemon decks, making jewellery and taste testing all the fudge we bought. 

Today we went hunting for UFOs at the Dechmont UFO trail. We wanted a walk that wasn't challenging but still fun and it met both of those criteria. A tree swing proved that no matter how old you are, there is still a 5 year old in all of us, and they were genuinely interested in the history of the walk. We may have broken them a little by insisting we go up the Law itself, but they appreciated the views once there. 

After that was Exploding Kittens before we went to Edinburgh Zoo to meet up with the parents and return the kids. Nephew had great fun running about with my camera again and tried to compete with his sister on the shots. I was soon giving both lessons as neice was surprised at the fact her photos were completely different (colour, focus abilities etc) at points and I explained the pros and cons of the different camera types they had (my DSLR vs her Hybrid camera). I made a point that, whilst mine was superior through glass, hers was better at going through fencing, amongst other things.

And that was the weekend gone! A very different experience to having my younger neice and nephew, but enjoyable all the same. My "completely 120% fun but I'm not gonna let you break rules" attitude has paid off as they were on best behaviour. I suspect another weekend is in the future, but later in the year, I need to recover from this one first!

Creeping about Craignethan Castle

So, we had intended to do the jousting today at Caerlaverock Castle today - an event I had really been looking forward to, but with the hubby on antibiotics for a chest infection and myself fighting off a cold, the predicted forecast of 98% chance of heavy rain and thunder just meant it was a no-go. A two hour drive to stand in the rain, whilst most weekends wouldn't deter me, was just not going to happen. Guaranteed we'd have all gotten grumpy with one another and just ruined the whole weekend!

We've done pretty much all out 'local' dog friendly castles, and have been scoping those further afield but still within sensible day-tripping distance - at 45 minutes away and promising a riverside walk in addition to a day wondering about a castle, we settled on giving Craignethan Castle a shot. 

Its a stout little castle that isn't done justice in the photos. One of the most intact of the ruins about the central belt, its boasts plenty of spiralling staircases up towers and down into cellars. We timed our visit well, arriving just as another couple were leaving, so basically we had the place to ourselves. We allowed Missy off the lead owing to the very narrow spiral staircases, and explored some of the peculiar features of the castle - particularly the caponier (the only surviving one in Scotland, apparently) which is basically a roofed building in a ditch for shooting people from.

Unsurprisingly, with it being designed by James Hamilton of Finnart, the kings master of works in the 1500's, its the most 'modern' of the castles in the area. With only the roof really missing, and the majority of the internal castle intact, its genuinely interesting to see how an architect of castles would build their own home. It was recently home to a badger, a story that went viral, and they were keen to keep the momentum going with a badger themed kids quiz and a badger sticker should you get the questions all right. We helped Missy with the quiz, and were pleased to come away with a sticker for the effort - certainly one of the most enjoyable quizzes we've done for a while! Altough Missy is barred from badgers, her last encounter with one left her with a lot of stitches and left the ubby and I with a rather large vet bill! Cute animals, but dangerous!

Within the grounds of the castle is the entrance to Netham Gorge, a mile long riverside walk into the nearby village. We were over confident of ourselves, and found the trail very steep with lots and lots of steps - a good walk, but perhaps not suitable with all the rain we've had! Missy had a tremendous time running through the undergrowth and hunting voles and bunnies. The village didn't turn up anything dog friendly but, as it was hammering with rain by that point, we didn't venture far, so I cant say that is the case for sure! Turning round, we all headed back to the car and dried off on the drive home.

Now for a well deserved cup of tea (or two) whilst we wait for a gap in the weather for Missy's evening walk - not that I think she's worried about one as she's fast asleep on the sofa in her dressing gown!